The Heritage Grain Conservancy is a farmers' cooperative to collect, conserve and restore delicious world heritage (landrace) grains on the verge of extinction. Our varieties are available in small amounts to multiply and restore. We manage a community seedbank of hundreds of rare varieties. Members are invited to work with us to help grow-out and evaluate our collection. Contact Eli for individualized support to procure wheats of special interest for artisan products. Contact Eli - growseed@yahoo.com Our wheat trial are funded by NESARE. See: Northeast Organic Wheat for details.

 

 Heritage Winter Wheat Sampler

Grow a diversity of world heritage wheats. This collection contains three heads each of our best European landraces trialed and selected for three years in Maine. Massachusetts and Vermont. Landraces include Banatka, Rouge de Bordeaux, Poltavka, Canaan Rouge and Purple (facultative) plus a 15 page booklet on 'Restoring Our Heritage of Wheat' with practical planting, on-farm selecting and harvesting tips. Trial heritage wheats or conduct research with a Noah's Ark of biodiversity. Special requests welcome.

$36. (includes shipping)

 Black Winter Emmer

HWC members receive the black emmer plus the sampler.

Black Winter Emmer is an almost lost grain that sustained ancient peoples. Known as Mother Wheat, it grows wild in the hills of northern Israel. Beloved as 'farro' in Italy, it withstands weather extremes better than other cereals, able to thrive in drought, yet stands well in the humid, moist weather, with strong rust and fusarium resistance. This little-known grain can give stable yields in the face ofunprecedented climate change

Versatile emmer is savored in soups, as a cracked grain for a hearty breakfast cereal, cooked like rice or milled into fine flour for bread or noodles. In folklore it is recommended for infants, the elderly and pregnant women, due to its high nutrition and digestibility. One cup of whole grain emmer provides 24 grams of protein. . Recipes

Heritage Winter Wheats

Each packet below contains 4 seedheads with 40 to 50 seeds in each head, selected from robust, locally-adapted plants - $10. each:

 Banatka

most robust, highest yielding in our trials of landrace winter wheats

'Banatka is reknowned for excellent baking quality.'

originally from Banat, Hungary

Red Lamas

the earliest wheat grown in colonial New England, brought over by British farmers in the 1600's, is excellent for scones and light breads.

In the Modern Husbandman, 1784, William Ellis wrote:

'Red Lammas is deemed the 'King of Wheats' for having deservedly the reputation of the finest, full bodied flour. It fetches the best price at market.'

Red Lamas

Rouge de Bordeaux

preferred by traditional French artisan bakers, lower protein, rich flavor

Paysans-boulanger Nicolas baking with Rouge de Bordeuax

Rouge de Bordeaux

French-Caucasus Genepool

' 'Looking at the field of ripening grain, Vavilov realized it was not a uniform wheat cultivar, but a panoply of intermixed strains of grain that formed a resilient polyculture. It was necessary to collect hundreds of seedheads for a representative sample of the vast biodiversity in a single field...The traditional farmers' methods of crop selection enhance landrace wheats' biodiversity; Their criteria of complex traits include: flavor, texture, health, maturation and more.' Where Our Food Comes From. Gary Nabhan p. 139

Plant a resilient wheat polyculture that can adapt to your unique fields and local weather:

Elite landrace winter wheat genepool: French Canaan Rouge and Ancient Georgian

Plant each seed 12" apart in deep-dug well-fertilized soil. Plant a low-growing clover or spread mulch between wheats to suppress spring weeds. Heritage wheats are at least twice as tall with a larger root system than modern wheats. Save the seeds from the robust plants that best thrive in your unique soil and micro-climate. Exchange seed with your neighbors to build a community wheat supply.Traditional farmers grow mixtures of landrace populations, allowing nature and farmers to work together to evolve a locally-adapted landrace. Current research confirms that wheat cultivar mixtures tend to yield higher.

A mixture of delicious, cold-hardy, graceful landraces

 

 

 

 

Heritage Flour and Spring Grains

 

 

Emmer (T. dicoccon), known as 'farro' in Europe, was the wheat of Ancient Egypt, used for the original matzah, and in the early years of Biblical Israel. Emmer was found in the Jericho cave where Bar Kokhba rebels hid from the Romans in 135 CE

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Emmer is being rediscovered as a gourmet grain due to its rich flavor and high nutrition. Our organic emmer is grown in the US from an ancient Ethiopian variety brought to Israel by Ethiopean Jews.

 Emmer

Whole Grain

1 lb Emmer

Sephardic Emmer Recipes from the Mediterranean Kitchen

 

$8.00 - per 1 lb

(2 lbs per package plus shipping)

  

Einkorn (T. monococcum), the oldest wheat-related grains, was found ancient Jericho and Turkey dating from 11,000 years ago. Einkorn is higher in protein, and minerals than modern wheat.

Einkorn is safe for most gluten allergies. Consult with your doctor before use. See:<celiac.com>

 organic

Einkorn Flour

1 lb

stone-milled fresh on order

$8.00 plus shipping

(2 per package)

Go To

growseed.org/einkorn.html

Biblical

Spring Durum

The ancient wheat variety discovered in the Masada Fortress by Yigal Yadin, translator of the Dead Sea Scroll, stored 2,000 years ago by King Herod. This is the wheat eaten by ancient Israel. but today is almost extinct. Collected by Nikolai Vavilov in 1926. and by Eli Rogosa in Wadi Fukin

 

Khorani 

not available in large amts till 2011,

for special request only

 Mida

Hard Red Spring Bread Wheat

A hearty, disease and rust resistant wheat with high yields, excellent baking quality and rich flavor. Seed is fat and glowing deep brown.. Stock seed grown by Mark Fulford and Cr Lawn in Maine.

Mida is a genepool of Emmer x Marquis x Fife x Russian Kota x Florence

Field of Mida in Maine

Mida

not available in large amts till 2011,

for special request only

 Ethiopian Purple Wheat

purple-blue seed rich in anti-oxydents with a rich, sweet flavor (facultative) both winter and spring
 

Ancient Grain Posters

 Heritage Wheat
sizes

 Wheat Biodiversity
sizes

 Ancient Wheat
sizes

BOOKS

 Seder Zariim L'Zemananu

The Way of Seed for Our Times

ancient teachings of blessings and seed in the first volume of the Mishnah - 30 pages pdf

$8.99

 Seed Stewards

Seed-Saving Activity Guidebook

grade-by-grade hands-on seed science

- 41 pages-pdf

$12.95

All photos and text copyright by Eli Rogosa and may not be copied, used or adapted without written permission.

Restoring Our Seed

New England Seed Conference